Evil Milkman

Open to all commentary.

If you are a believer, how or why did you become one?

RJS

- grew up in Catholic family.

- lost faith during college - "what is the chance that the Catholic "religion" was the right one".

- never gave up in basic belief in God.

- reason for such basic belief relates to my unwillingness to accept that all of this (i.e. the entire universe) just "is". I feel there is a SIGNIFICANTLY higher probability placed on Intelligent Design than just "the Big Bang just happened." I marvel at every aspect of life and the universe. Don't you think it is cool that God has still kept the provable answer from scientists? It came down to Faith 2000 years ago, and it still comes down to Faith. I do not think that will change, regardless of scientific discoveries. God is found with the heart, not with a telescope.

- Surrendered (born again) to Christ a couple of years ago, following study, research, and introspection. It all makes sense now.

I guess in summary the thought process is -

1 God exists.
2 Jesus existed.
3 Jesus' works, claims, and resurrection happened.
4 Jesus is the Son of God.

It is all consistent with the most amazing thing to me in the world which is agape love. It is not contrived. It is truth.

Regards.

[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: RJS ]

[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: RJS ]

[ September 18, 2002: Message edited by: RJS ]</p>

Evil Milkman

Thanks, RJS.

Anyone else?

Ojuice5001

The most recent time I was an atheist of any kind was in eleventh grade. I began to feel that there probably was a god or gods of some kind, just not the cruel warrior-deity of the Christians and Jews. I became a theist on basis of some proofs that, I admit it, were like something straight off the "...Therefore, God Exists" thread. They were the first cause argument, a time when a certain Zulu medicine man had allegedly told the future, and a certain aspect of chaos theory I had read of that said similar random events (like gambling, for instance) go in streaks (as opposed to being totally random).

Since then, I have not been a believer in either Christianity (except for a brief stint in my senior year) or naturalistic atheism, but my beliefs, and my reasons for rejecting atheism, have changed over the years, especially after coming to this site. These days, I am a theist because of my experiences with the Roman goddess Postverta, and because I see purpose everywhere, and especially purpose that connects the world to itself and to the Roman and Abrahamic gods. These reasons may not be convincing to atheists, but I think they're good ones.

Veil of Fire

The day I first had a conversation with a tree, I knew there was more out there than 'nothing'.

Heathen Dawn

1. Spiritually restless. Always been a worshipper of something.

2. Afraid of death. The notion that this is all going to end scared the living daylights out of me.

Atheism (born into an atheist family) → monotheism (wanted to see what it was like) → deism (lapsed out of theism) → atheism (learnt about evolution) → pantheism (religious implications of evolution) → Wicca (attracted by the nature-worshipping religion and its male and female divinities).

Nature is God. Nature is Goddess. I do worship the God and the Goddess.

MadMordigan

I woke up one day, and the radio on the clock radio was playing 'After Midnight'.

HelenM

I don't know how.

I always did believe in God back as far as I can remember, on and off. In my own way. I used to pray by myself sometimes. I suppose I heard about God from other people; there were theists around although not in my own family.

In college I heard about what Bible-believing Christians believe - the "God loves you; God has a plan for your life; you're a sinner; Jesus died for your sins; you're not a Christian unless you've personally received what He did as for you and have given control of your life to Him" etc which to this day I am amazed I managed to live 19 years without hearing - but, that's another story. It shows me it really is 'another language' to those not brought up hearing it.

So, I thought about it, I prayed the prayer, I was convinced because when I prayed I believed God answered - call it what you will - an emotional release? Who knows...but I was convinced, started attending church with the people who 'shared the gospel with me'...it did change my life a lot; I think it helped me a lot, being a Christian. At that point in my life I needed to feel loved unconditionally...

So, that was what happened. But I don't know 'how' I came to believe, really. I think it's somewhat of a mystery why we believe what we believe.

That's why I think reason and logic are important but, I think we kid ourselves that our beliefs (or lack thereof) are more rationally-based than they really are.

But I expect you're thinking "speak for yourself - yours really are because you're a theist!" Well, so be it

Helen

Kosh

Personally, I've always found them to be a little stiff.

HelenM

Well, I think you should branch out a bit more.